


Keith's cold

by GratefulLurkingAnon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cold, Gen, Nosebleed, Sickness, Sneezing, sneeze
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 09:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14615028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GratefulLurkingAnon/pseuds/GratefulLurkingAnon
Summary: Keith tries to carry out his day as usual despites of having an annoying cold.





	Keith's cold

In the space, there weren’t really mornings or evenings but Keith knew he had woken up too early. He usually woke up well rested but now, he was still exhausted. If it wasn’t for his stuffed nose, he would have probably fallen back asleep.

   After lying down for few minutes sniffling non-stop, he just gave up on sleeping. He had to find some tissues somewhere.  Keith remembered seeing them in the bathroom.  Keith sat up and felt an itch in his nose and not having time to even trying to prevent it, he hastily sneezed on his palm.

    “Great,” Keith mumbled. The snot from his nose had found a new home from his hand. There was no paper in his room so he wiped his hand off on his towel. He would have to get another towel as well now. Keith dressed up and headed to the bathroom.

  The castleship was quiet. Everyone was probably still in their rooms sleeping. Keith entered the empty bathroom. The paper tissue box was on a small self. Keith stuffed his pockets full of tissues, just in case. He blew his nose. The tissue was quickly wet from sticky yellowish substance. Keith threw the used tissue in the trash can and moved on brushing his teeth.

   “If no-one’s up yet, there won’t be any breakfast yet either. I guess I take a shower now,” Keith thought. He had to go to the storage room to get a new towel first.  Keith stepped out of the bathroom to the empty corridor. His nose got itchy again.

     Keith tried to restrain the oncoming sneeze by pressing his nostrils closed with his fingers. This only resulted a series of half-stifled sneezes that made his head pound. Thinking that the sneeze attack was over, Keith reached his hand to his pocket to pull out a tissue so he could blow his nose again.  He didn’t have even a chance to pull his hand out of his pocket when he sneezed again. A loud: “GHACHO!” was echoing through the corridor. 

   Keith slumped down, burying his face into his knees, blushing embarrassed.  At school, there had been this one kid that had made fun of Keith’s sneezes so he didn’t like other people hearing him sneezing. Ever since, he had just tried to stifle his sneezes when around others.

   Keith blew his nose again and stood up. He returned to the bathroom to throw the used tissue away and then went to get himself a towel and headed to the shower. Keith took his clothes off and placed them on a bench and walked across the room into the shower stall and turned the water on.

    The warm water felt good on his face. The hot steam made Keith’s nose to run and he blew the snot on his hand and let the water to wash it off. His nose became unclogged. Keith proceeded to wash his hair, then rest of his body.  He rinsed the soap away then turned the water off.

    Keith dried himself up on the towel, put his clothes back on and returned to his room. He hung his wet towel on the coat rack. His hair was still damp. Keith usually didn’t use the hairdryer, he preferred to let his hair dry on its own.

    Now Keith had to think how to pass time before the breakfast. Well, there really wasn’t anything else to do there other than training. He would have rather had the breakfast first but on the other hand, breakfast would taste even better after the practice. Keith grabbed his bayard and headed towards the door. He had his finger on the button to open the door but suddenly pulled his finger off.  “Ugh-GHACHO! AGHACHO!”

    Keith pressed his head against the door, sniffling hopelessly. Just what exactly did he do to deserve this? He didn’t want people to hear him sneezing and then make fun of him, heck, he didn’t even want anyone to realize that he had a cold but it seemed to be impossible to hide it since his nose seemed to be running and itching all the time.

 Keith opened the door and stepped out of his room. The corridor was still empty and silent. Keith headed towards the training room. His lonely steps echoed in the hallways. Then he heard another pair of feet heading towards his direction.

    “Oh, Keith my man, I’m glad to find someone awake. There is a little something I need your help with, could you come with for a tick?” Coran greeted, slapping his palm on Keith’s shoulder.

   Well, he wasn’t exactly doing anything important so Keith had to agree to help Coran. Coran was fixing something and needed Keith to hold the objects still while Coran himself was screwing them in place. Coran kept talking the whole time but Keith didn’t really understand what he was talking about since it involved a lot of Altean mechanical terms that Keith had literally never heard before. Coran also seemed to change to subject quite often so it was hard to follow his speech.

   Keith twitched. He felt a sneeze coming but both of his hands were occupied. The metal bar he was holding was too heavy to be held with one hand only. Keith clenched his teeth together and tried to fight the stinging feeling off.  Coran was still nowhere finished with the screwing.   

   “Ung…AGHCO-gah-ACHO!” Keith sneezed and the bar shook.

   “Bless you,” Coran told with his usual lighthearted manner.

   The sneezes had caused the snot to come out of Keith’s nose and ran down reaching his lips. But he couldn’t let go of the bar just yet. Coran hadn’t looked down so he didn’t notice that his working partner really needed to wipe their face clean. Keith tried to sniffle the snot back in but it didn’t work.

     When the bar was in place and Keith could finally let go of it, he marched out of the room and pulled a tissue out of his pocket, wiped his face and blew his nose. Then he returned back. Another bar was waiting for him.  Keith raised it up but soon put the bar back down and pressed his nose with his fist.

   “Keith, is everything alright?” Coran asked.

    “Yeah, it’s just… Kinda dusty in here,” Keith told. Technically he wasn’t lying even though he knew very well that it wasn’t the dust causing him to sneeze.

     “Really? I guess it’s been a while since this room was cleaned,” Coran told. He seemed to be pondering about something and then said: “Oh, I almost forgot that I need to go find my ringlesnak. Let’s finish this later”.

   Keith had no idea what a ringlesnak was, some Altean tool probably. But he was grateful that he got excused. Keith grabbed his bayard and once again headed towards the training room. He could hear noises from inside the room. Keith opened the room and found Shiro inside, fighting against the trainingbot.

   Keith thought it would be rude to join in unasked so he sat down and waited, watching Shiro’s fight. When the bot got defeated, Keith stood up and told: “Let me join you”.

   Shiro looked at Keith and smiled. “Sure,” he replied and started the battle simulation again, this time with two fighting bots.

   Keith’s bayard took the shape of a sword. He readied his stance, then waited for the bots to start moving. As soon as the bot moved, Keith rushed towards it. He kept clashing his sword against the bot’s, trying to circle around it and find an opening. His movements however were more sluggish than usual and he couldn’t move his feet fast enough. The training bot pushed Keith away.

       Keith fell backwards but managed to roll back on his feet. He rushed at the bot again. His nose began to run and this time the liquid was much thinner than before but Keith didn’t stop to care about it. His sword had just clashed against the bot’s when Keith heard his name being yelled.

     Shiro told the fighting simulator to abort the training session while rushing towards Keith. Keith had no idea what Shiro got so shocked and sniffled the runny liquid in. His mouth was filled with a salty, metallic taste.

      “Keith, are you okay?” Shiro asked and gently pushed Keith to sit down.

     Keith pressed the bridge of his nose, trying to stop the bleeding, and reached out for a tissue from his pocket. He leaned forwards to prevent getting any more blood in his mouth.  “Yeah,” he replied.

   “Did you get hit? I didn’t really see what happened,” Shiro told.

    Keith’s nose never took any damage from the training bot. It had just spontaneously started bleeding, as if it was trying to protest against him training. “Y-Yeah, I guess so,” Keith lied. The first tissue was already too bloody to be used so he took out another one.

     “Do you have any more paper on you?”  Shiro asked. Keith handed him a clean tissue. Shiro took it and started wiping the bloodstains off the floor.

  Keith’s nose had stopped bleeding. He stood up slowly, a bit dizzy from the sudden blood loss. He threw the used bloody tissues in the rubbish bin.

   “I guess that’s enough training for this morning then,” Shiro said. “Let’ go get something to drink”.

   Keith nodded as a reply. He followed after Shiro towards the kitchen.  On their way, Keith stopped walking, reaching his hand to his nose in attempt to stifle a sneeze. His hand just wasn’t fast enough.  “UGHACHO!” he sneezed and his nose started to bleed again. He took out yet another tissue and held it under his nostrils while squeezing his nose to stop the bleeding again.

     Shiro turned around after hearing Keith sneezing and saw Keith’s nose bleed again. Shiro was starting to get worried but knew Keith didn’t like him being overprotective. He trusted Keith to be able to take care of himself. But Shiro still decided to keep his eye on Keith, just in case that something was wrong with him.

     Keith noticed Shiro staring at him and blushed. Shiro would never make fun of him sneezing but sometimes tended to get overprotective which also made Keith feel awkward. “I’m fine,” Keith insisted, even though Shiro hadn’t even said anything.  Shiro seemed like he wasn’t really buying it, but still chose to keep quiet.

    They reached the kitchen. Hunk was not there yet, so it would take a bit longer for them to get breakfast. At least if they wanted to eat something better than the food goo. And Keith would rather wait for Hunk’s food because it was worth of the wait. He could have tried making breakfast himself but he was not familiar with the cooking process of the alien food. Hunk was the only paladin to actually be able to tell which foods were suitable for human consumption and knew how to cook them.

   “Here,” Shiro told, offering Keith a water pouch, the straw already in it.

    Keith thanked Shiro and took the drink. They walked to the parlor and sat down to drink. The other people had started waking up as well and it didn’t take too long until the long waited breakfast was being served and they could head to the table.

     Often Lance and Pidge would be missing, Lance usually just sleeping in, Pidge because she sometimes lost the track of time and kept working while the others were asleep and only realizing that after someone came to check on her. But this time, both of them were on time.

    “Good morning everyone,” Shiro greeted them. Keith just quietly followed Shiro and sat at the table next to Hunk.

    “Keith, did something happen to you? Your shirt is bloody…” Hunk asked.

   “It was… Just a training accident,” Keith replied shortly and started to shove the food in his mouth. He had been really hungry and was happy to finally get something to eat.

 

During the breakfast, Keith’s nose kept constantly itching but he managed to fight to keep the sneezes at bay but couldn’t help sniffling time to time. Luckily no-one seemed to notice. When Keith had finished eating, he tried to leave the room, but Allura stopped him saying: “Wait, there is something I want tell you all after the breakfast”.

   Keith sat back down. Most of them were still nowhere finished with their meals. His nose was throbbing but he didn’t want to make any too obvious gestures when trying to stifle sneezes. He knew Shiro was keeping an eye on him. Keith breathed in fast through his nose. There was no way to avoid it, he was about to sneeze again. He had to quickly to press his nostrils shut. First, a silent, stifled sneeze came out, but Keith lost the control during the second one and the third one was a loud: “GACHO!” After a short pause, he sneezed again. As if all the sneezes he had held back during the breakfast were now coming out all at once and it felt like the sneezing was never going to stop. But after the seventh sneeze his ordeal was finally over.

    Keith raised his glance, his hand still covering his mouth and sniffled. Everyone in the table was silently staring at him. Keith could feel his face turning bright red.

   “That was-” Lance started saying something but was interrupted by Shiro who was clearly trying to steer the conversation away from Keith. Keith was grateful for that.

   “Allura, what did you want to tell us?” Shiro asked.

   “Well, I have little surprise for you,” Allura told.

   “Surprise? Like a gift?” Lance asked excited.

   “Well you could say that,” Allura replied. She made a screen appear. On the screen, was today’s schedule. “Today, we have some special training!” she stated merrily. 

   “That’s not really what I was hoping for,” Lance said.

   “It’s to overcome the biggest problems hindering your teamwork. That being said, you will work in pairs,” Allura lectured.

   “Wait, there’s five of us, one gets left out,” Lance pointed out.

   “Six. There will be six of us. I will take part in this training,” Allura told.

   “Me! Pair with me!” Lance shouted.

   “No. You will be paired with Keith,” Allura stated.

   Keith’s heart felt like it had just stopped. Right now, the person who he wanted to be around the least was Lance. Lance was already always making fun of him and nagging about everything he thought Keith was doing “wrong”.

   “What? Why do you always pair me with Keith?!” Lance snapped.

   “Because you two really need to work on your teamwork,” Allura replied. Lance couldn’t really argue against that remark. Allura continued: “I will be paired with Pidge and Hunk with Shiro. Go to change into your armors, get your bayards and meet me at the training room”.

    The paladins left the table and headed towards their rooms. Shiro followed Keith and in front of his room asked: “Can I come in and talk to you for a sec? ”

  Keith nodded and let Shiro in. After the door was closed, Shiro got closer, placing his robot hand on Keith’s shoulder and the other hand on Keith’s forehead. Shiro’s hand felt warm. He had a stern, worried expression on his face.

     “Sorry, I just… Had to make sure…” Shiro told and pulled his hand away. Keith at least didn’t seem to have a fever. But it did seem like he had a cold. ”But if you are not up to it, you don’t have to train with us. I’m sure Allura will understand,” Shiro said.

    “I’m fine, really,” Keith insisted.

   “If you say so. But if you start feeling unwell, let me know,” Shiro asked.

   “I will,” Keith assured.

   “Okay then, see you soon,” Shiro said and left the room.

   When the door got closed, Keith took out a tissue and blew his nose, then changed in his armor and grabbed his bayard. The space armor didn’t have any place to stuff his tissues in so Keith had to leave them behind. He was ready and exited his room to join the others.

 

“Okay now that you all are here, I explain the exercise to you.  The exercise actually consist multiple smaller sections you have to clear with your partner,” Allura told. Coran opened a box and pulled something out. “And you be doing this all while being handcuffed to your partner,” Allura declared.

   “Wait, what?” Lance asked. Coran had started handcuffing the pairs together, starting from Hunk and Shiro.

   “Just get over it,” Keith told annoyed. He didn’t like being handcuffed to Lance either, not especially right now, but Lance’s attitude was getting really annoying. Lance didn’t even try to get along with Keith.

    “Now then, let’s move on the actual exercise,” Allura told.

 

The first exercise was to clear a labyrinth in a total darkness. The task was simple: to find their way out and avoid running in to obstacles and the walls.  Allura and Pidge were the first pair to go in. The door would open when the next pair was allowed to go in.

      Keith’s right hand was handcuffed to Lance’s left hand. The back of his hand was touching Lance’s, even though Lance tried to avoid as much skin contact as possible with Keith.

      Keith’s nose twitched and he instinctly tried to cover his mouth with his right hand but Lance’s hand was pulling it down, so he couldn’t. “GHACHO!Agh-GCHU!” Keith sneezed, bending forwards from the impact. The snot escaped from his nose once again.

   “Ew. Yeah, go ahead and spread your germs around, we don’t mind at all,” Lance nagged.

   Keith glanced at Lance angrily while using the back of his left glove to wipe the snot off.

   “Yep, that’s it. I want to change pairs, now!” Lance declared.

   “Lance,” Shiro said firmly, but before he could say the rest, Lance interrupted him.

   “It’s not fair that I get a sick guy as a partner. I’m just gonna catch whatever he is having,” Lance complained.

   “Lance!” Shiro said again, now with louder voice to get Lance’s attention. “Both Allura and Coran are on the other side of the labyrinth with the keys. You guys can go first and ask Coran to take the handcuffs off and I will be paired with Keith for the rest of the exercises.” Shiro told.

    The door opened and Lance and Keith stepped in. After they had entered the dark room and were alone, Lance immediately said: “Please cover your mouth when sneezing from now on, I really don’t want to catch that nasty bug of yours”.

    “Shut up,” Keith told and started walking forwards fast pace. The sooner he got rid of Lance the better.

   “Wait, Keith, don’t go so fast, at this pace we are going to-” Lance started but the rest got cut off when Keith stumbled on an object on the ground, fell and pulled Lance with him to the ground.

    “Fall. Thanks a lot Keith,” Lance told, lying on the ground.

    “I’m sorry, okay?” Keith replied angrily. He and Lance got up.

  “You don’t sound sorry at all,” Lance pointed out.

   “Just give it a rest already and let’s g-ghah,” Keith snapped back but couldn’t finish the sentence from a sneeze beginning to build. This time he remembered to use his left hand to cover. The sneezes caused him to twitch so violently that even Lance could feel Keith’s sneezes.

   “You really should have just sat this one out,” Lance said. His tone didn’t sound as nagging and frustrated as before. It sounded almost like Lance was actually a bit worried about Keith.

  “I’m fine, let’s continue,” Keith told.

  “This time you follow my lead and won’t start running off again,” Lance told.

   Lance and Keith wandered around for good amount of time before Lance yelled frustrated: “This labyrinth is impossible! How can we find out if we can’t even remember which way we came in!”

   “There must be some kind of clue somewhere,” Keith pondered.

   “Like a secret markings on the walls?” Lance asked and was going through the walls with his right hand. “I can’t find anything”.

    Keith thought about the clues and the only thing he could come up, was the objects on the floors. “Lance, I want to check something on the floor,” Keith told. He started to search for the objects with his legs. When he finally found one, he touched it, trying to figure out what it was. The object wasn’t very tall, about the size of an average brick. It was shaped like…

    “An arrow. The objects on the floor are arrows. I think if we follow them, we get to the exit” Keith told. And he was right. They got out. Pidge, Allura and Coran were waiting for them on the other side.

   “You guys sure took your sweet time clearing the labyrinth,” Pidge told. She most likely had examined the objects on the floor as soon as she found the first one and figured the labyrinth out.

    “Coran, can you take the handcuffs off. Keith’s too sick for this kind of exercising,” Lance told.

    “Hey, don’t decide how sick I am all by yourself, I’m fine,” Keith argued, sniffling.

    “Yeeaah, riiight. Do you realize that even right now you are sniffling,” Lance remarked.

    “I think Lance is right. Keith, you are in no shape for psychical exercising, it would be bad if you overworked yourself and let the sickness get worse. This is just an exercise, it’s not like we are under an attack, so you should take it easy, just in case,” Allura told.

   Coran opened Lance and Keith’s handcuffs. Keith was a bit down from being told to sit out.

  “So, will we change pairs or something now?” Lance asked.

  Allura seemed to be thinking. “No,” she said. “Your new exercise is to take care of Keith. And Keith, you need to let Lance take care of you”.

    “What? Are you serious?” Lance replied.

    “Yes. Start with taking Keith back to his room and making him rest,” Allura told.

   “That’s ridiculous. I don’t need Lance to take care of me,” Keith argued.

   “It doesn’t matter if you need him or not. That is your exercise and I’ll have my mice to keep their eyes on you,” Allura told.

  “Fine. Okay, let’s go Keith,” Lance said.

   Keith still thought this whole situation was dumb but gave in. He returned back to his room with Lance. He took off his armor and changed back to his usual clothes.

   “Okay, first of all, no, you can’t sleep on those,” Lance told.

   “I’m not going to sleep,” Keith said.

    “Hey, princess gave me a mission and I am going to fulfill it properly. Didn’t your room also with an Altean nightgown? ” Lance asked.

   “I’m not putting on a dress,” Keith told.

  “It’s not a dress. Just take it out and put it on,” Lance said.

   Keith sighed. He took out the nightgown and put it on. He lied on the bed, pulled the blanket over his ears facing the wall. If he pretended to fall asleep, maybe Lance would leave.

   “I guess I should check your temperature,” Lance told. He took the upper part of his armor and his gloves off, then placed one hand on Keith’s forehead and the other on his own. “Hm… You actually feel rather cold instead of hot”.

  “Well yeah, I told you I’m fine,” Keith said. Lying down was making him feel more congested. He had to sit up.

   “Just because you don’t have a fever doesn’t mean you’re not sick, lie back down,” Lance ordered.

   Keith sniffled. He had to get his tissues. He stood up.

   “What, no, Keith, I said lie down, not stand up,” Lance told disgruntled and grabbed Keith’s wrist.

   “I’m just grabbing some tissues,” Keith told.

   “I can get them for you, just stay in bed,” Lance told but Keith didn’t listen to him.

   Keith yanked his hand from Lance’s grasp and went to get the tissues stuffed in his belt pockets. He blew his nose. One tissue wasn’t enough so he took another. The clean tissues in his one hand and the used ones in the other, he headed towards the rubbish bin. Keith threw away the snotty tissues and then sat on his bed, stuffing the tissues under the pillow.

 “Lie down,” Lance ordered.

  Keith glared at Lance. As if he would voluntarily do something that made him just feel worse.

  “Seriously. Even the kids I’ve taken care of were less troublesome as you,” Lance told.

   Lance had… Taken care of kids…? Keith had heard that Lance had a big family but never had thought about him taking care of someone else. Lance seemed to be just a boisterous attention seeker and was not really all that considerate towards others.  Lance kept always making fun of Keith and being really rude towards him, even when Keith was trying to be nice.

   Keith’s nose was starting to get irritated again. He pressed his nose to stifle the sneeze but suddenly, his hand was pulled down.

  “Don’t try to stifle them, it’s unhealthy,” Lance told, now grabbing Keith’s other hand as well, lying on Keith’s lap to prevent Keith from moving, facing the bed to avoid Keith sneezing on his face.

  “W-what-ah- L-lance-ghah- St-gh…” Keith protested trying to fight both the sneeze and Lance at the same time. He breathed in fast and sneezed violently. Lance let go of Keith’s hands and got out of the way.  Keith took a tissue from under his pillow and blew his nose.

   “Stay in the bed, I need to go get some things,” Lance told and left the room.

  

Keith sat still in his bed for a while, but then he needed to use the restroom. He stood up and exited his room. When Keith had used the restroom and returned back to his room, Lance was waiting him, looking angry.

    “What, am I not even allowed to go to the toilet anymore?” Keith asked and walked past Lance, heading back to his bed.

   “Sorry. I thought you tried to run off,” Lance told.

   “We are in a spaceship. Where would I ran off to? To the spa-” Keith started but stopped middle of the word last. Actually, that did sound like a pretty good plan right now.  

   “I have no idea what you are thinking about but I don’t like it,” Lance told, staring Keith sourly.

   Keith noticed that his bed had more pillows now, stacked in a way that would allow him to stay more upright while lying down.  That was unexpectedly insightful from Lance. Maybe Keith had misjudged him. Keith lied down over the pillows.

   “Now then, stay hydrated. I actually managed to find some tea in the kitchen so here, drink it,” Lance told and offered Keith a cup of tea.

   Keith quietly took the cup and drank from it, then spat the tea back in the cup. The tea tasted horrible. It was too strong and bitter and there was no sugar or milk in it.  

  “HEY! Don’t spit it out!” Lance yelled.

  “It tastes horrible,” Keith told, sticking his tongue out.

   “Don’t be such a baby over it. It’s herbal tea Hunk made, it really will help you to feel better so just deal with it,” Lance said.

   Keith got pissed off and tried to drink the tea. It did help a bit with congestion and made his nose to run.

   “I also got you plenty of water pouches so-” Lance started.

   “Give me one now,” Keith told, holding out his hand.

   “Did you mean, please?” Lance said offended by Keith’s demanding tone, yet handed out the water pouch. 

   Keith put the straw in and drank greedily to wash off the taste of the tea.  He handed the empty water pouch to Lance. “Thanks,” Keith said quietly and lied back down.

   With Lance keeping an eye on Keith, he had no other choice than to try to at least pretend to sleep. But after lying down with his eyes closed for some time, he unintentionally fell asleep.

 

 When Keith woke up, Lance wasn’t in his room anymore. But someone else was. Shiro was sitting on a chair, next to Keith’s bed.

    “Keith, how are you feeling?” Shiro asked, smiling at Keith.

   That was a really good question. His nose was congested again. When Keith sat up, he noticed that now his head was also aching and slumped back down. “Ugh, was that tea poisoned…” he muttered.

   “Keith?” Shiro asked, now a bit worried. He placed his hand on Keith’s forehead. Before even actually touching Keith’s skin, Shiro could feel the heat radiating from it. “You’re burning up”.

   “I think Lance has finally tried poisoning me,” Keith told.

   Shiro laughed. “No, I don’t think that’s the case. Lance really did his best taking care of you. He stayed here when you were sleeping but went to have some lunch with others,” Shiro said.

   “Yeah, maybe I’ve misjudged him a little,” Keith replied.

   “Lance isn’t really a bad guy even though he can be a bit of… Lance…” Shiro told. Then he remembered that Keith hadn’t had lunch yet. “Are you hungry? Should I go to get you something?”

   “I… Don’t know. I don’t really feel like eating right now,” Keith replied.

   “Well, in that case, maybe it’s better if you don’t. I’ll go to ask Allura if they have some medicine to bring your fever down. Do you need anything else?” Shiro asked, standing up.

   “No I’m f-ugh-GACHO!”  Keith sneezed at the back of his hand.

   “Just hang in there,” Shiro told smiling, gently fondling Keith’s hair before he left.

 

For the rest of the day, Keith laid in his bed with a cold wet towel on his forehead, trying to sleep the fever off, but kept being woken up by his congested nose. He managed to eat some soup Hunk had made for him, but couldn’t finish it completely.  Shiro stayed with him and kept changing his the towel and held Keith’s hand when Keith shivered from the fever.

   The next day, Keith woke up and found Shiro asleep on the edge of his bed, still holding Keith’s hand. Keith smiled and shook Shiro awake.

   “Hmh… Keith…?” Shiro mumbled half-asleep after seeing Keith. It took a while for him to realize where he was.

    “You should sleep in your bed. You will probably be the next one to catch a cold,” Keith told. He coughed a little. His face was still a bit flushed.

   Shiro placed his hand on Keith’s forehead to check his temperature. The fever had gone down for some but Keith was still a bit warmer than usual. “You are still feverish.”

   “I feel a bit better now, so don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine by myself,” Keith assured.

   “You seem a bit better but… I go to ask someone to come to check on you time to time,” Shiro told. He left the room and Keith was left alone.

   Keith drank some water and tried to sleep some more. Turned out that Altean people either needed less sleep or just woke up really early. Coran and Allura kept checking on Keith. Allura made him take some more medicine. Keith wasn’t allowed out of the bed so all he could do was to rest. He wasn’t sneezing as much as yesterday but now his throat was sore and he had developed a cough.

   The medicine Allura had given Keith was working and the next morning, his fever had finally gone completely down. His nose was still runny and he kept coughing, but he was starting to feel better and was allowed to leave the bed but not to do any physical training. He did watch the other’s to train though. They did run in to a Galra warship and had to fight with their Lions.  Keith got a coughing attack middle of the fight but Red seemed to be acting on her own to cover him. Slowly, day by day, Keith kept getting better, until his cold was completely gone.

  


End file.
